Excerpts from
Radical Happiness: A Guide to Awakening

This world is all divine
play—lila—as the Hindu mystics say, a way for the Oneness to experience
what it could not experience any other way. The Oneness hides from itself in
this world with the intent of finding itself again. It becomes deeply immersed
in illusion—the illusion of being a separate individual—so that it can explore
life as these many forms, which allow it to have an enormous range of
experience. The ego, this sense of separation, is not a mistake but created by
the Oneness as a means for playing in and exploring this physical reality. We
are the Oneness that allows the mind to spin its illusions and create the drama
the Oneness is delighting in. There is no mistake here. The mind, the ego, and
the illusion are all intended to make manifest the playground of life.
Meanwhile, the Self participates in its creation by being aware of it
all.

We are forever spinning stories
about ourselves and others and about our past and future. These cause us great
suffering because they are not true, or at least not the whole truth. We create
an imaginary reality with these stories, and then we live in it. Meanwhile, the
Self allows whatever reality the egoic self is creating. It is perfectly willing
to have whatever experience we choose. It enjoys learning from it all. It is
fascinated to see how the story will play out. The Self is enthralled with its
creation and joyously anticipates its every move. When we awaken and our
identity shifts from the ego to the Self, we feel this joy and the love the Self
has for itself in all its many forms.

About the
mind

The mind dictates the supposed truth to us
about who we are and how things are, and we believe it—until we don’t. The mind
is an imposter dictator. It spins a false reality. Behind the mind lies
Awareness of the mind, the body, and everything that exists—and that is who we
are.

Just as we become engrossed in movie images
and forget our surroundings, the ego becomes entranced by the movement of the
mind, its thoughts, its feelings, and its desires. This becomes its world, its
reality. It doesn’t notice the space, the nothingness, the emptiness between the
thoughts. Following our thoughts and feelings keeps us very busy and leads to a
lot of suffering. It creates the drama we call “my life.” However, life doesn’t
have to go in the direction of our thoughts and feelings. That is not the life
intended by the Self. It intends a different story, a simpler and potentially
happier and more fulfilling one. However, the Self allows us to create these
dramas and learn from them until we tire of them and begin to question the cause
of our suffering.

The mind ignores so much of what is present
in any moment. It only experiences its version of the moment. When we are
identified with the mind, all we see is what it sees: separation; and all we
experience is what it experiences: thoughts, feelings, and sensory input, which
are part of the illusion it is creating and living. In a sense, there are two
possible experiences of every moment: the moment as experienced by the Self and
the moment as experienced by the ego. The ego’s experience of the moment is
struggle, conflict, effort, dissatisfaction, restlessness, and unease. The
Self’s experience of the moment is freedom, happiness, peace, contentment, and
joy.

About thoughts

All sorts of untrue ideas and assumptions
exist in the mind, including many opposite and contradictory ones. It reasons
one way on one day and another way on the next. It concludes one thing and then
it concludes the opposite. It wants one thing and then it wants something
different. It is fickle because its conclusions are based on contradictory
evidence and beliefs. The mind’s beliefs, ideas, and opinions are not coherent
and consistent; so how can the mind’s conclusions be?

Despite its unreliability, the mind is sure
of its viewpoint—and it can be very convincing. A thought arises, and often a
sense of great certainty is attached to it, so we agree with it without
examining it. Our thoughts can be very convincing regardless of whether they are
true or not. It is like having a propaganda machine in our head, but who is
spewing propaganda and why?

There is no answer to who is spewing this
propaganda because there is no one “behind the curtain.” Like the wizard of Oz,
the ego is not what we think it is. It has no real substance. It is nothing more
than a bunch of disparate beliefs and ideas. Behind the ego, there is no one who
has all the answers. It is more like a computer that has been programmed with
platitudes and beliefs. Like the mechanical gypsies found at carnivals, you put
your money in, and out pops an answer. You never know what will pop out, but you
can be sure something will if you give it your attention (your money).

Why the egoic mind acts like a propaganda
machine is simple, really: It is the mechanism that keeps the illusion going. It
is programmed to make the illusion believable. It is part of the Self’s game of
hide and seek. Who programmed it? The Self, of course (there is no one else),
but the specific programming it contains depends on our genetics and
environment. Our mind is programmed to create the particular experiences the
Self intends to have through us—until we awaken from the illusion and the Self
becomes embodied. After that, the programming only serves when
necessary.

Although thoughts may have some
wisdom to them, for the most part, they are stabs at truth and tell us little
about how to live in this moment. Instead, they keep us at arm’s length from the
moment. They keep us living in a mentally fabricated reality—the realm of
ideas—rather than in the now. They interfere with life rather than enhance it.
This is contrary to our deeply held belief that thoughts are important,
relevant, and meaningful. This belief is the lynchpin that, when removed, causes
the whole game to fall apart; and where we land is right smack dab into
Reality—into this alive, present moment.

Thinking can be like any other
activity we are present to. We can be present to our thoughts just as we are
present to whatever else is part of that moment. When we are present to our
thoughts, it won’t feel like we are thinking them but more like we are noticing
them being thought, which is very different from the usual way of
thinking.

About the ego, the
me

The ego would not exist without the mental
drama it creates. It exists and thrives on thoughts about the past and plans of
the future. It constantly mulls over the story of me: “How’s it going
for me?” “How am I going to do?” “How did I do?” “What do I have to do to get
things to go my way?” Evaluations and plans are the stuff the ego feeds on,
which cause it to grow, until it looms large in our consciousness, blocking out
awareness of other aspects of Reality. When we live in the egoic state of
consciousness, life is about the story and how it is going and all the worries,
fears, concerns, and problems entailed in that. This is the ongoing drama that
the ego is engrossed in.

The ego—the me—appears to
exist, although it actually only exists as a thought. It appears the ego is
having thoughts, but the ego itself is a thought. This is another of the great
illusions, which keeps us enmeshed in the egoic state of consciousness. The ego
seems very real, and yet it has no substance. If you look very closely, you see
that it is composed of thoughts about me and nothing more.

Absorption with the me is
behind much of our suffering because the me is not only a very small
part of the truth, it doesn’t even exist. This constant self-reflection seems
valuable when we are engaged in it. We think it is improving us or our lives,
but instead, it takes us away from life.

When we forget for a moment about the
me, we still exist as consciousness. This consciousness is moving the
body and aware of everything there is to be aware of. The me doesn’t
need to be in the picture at all for life to be happening. The experience of no
me is quite surprising when we first begin experiencing it for longer
periods of time, but really, this is the most natural state.

About suffering:

The belief that things should be other than
the way they are right now is the belief most responsible for the suffering on
this planet. It is a lie. Things can never be different than the way they are
right now because it is already too late. Life has moved on to the next moment,
and that moment cannot be different from what it is either. Life is just
happening, and the mind is saying no to it all. It argues with reality at every
turn, but this doesn’t change a thing. It only makes for a lot of
unhappiness.

The way out of this suffering is to notice
that this is going on. Notice how often the mind says no to what is in
this moment. Notice how it brings its view of good and bad to every moment and
instantly decides it should be different than it is. We allow this to continue
because we unconsciously believe that this is a good strategy for life.

The ego is at battle with life, and attacking
each moment makes it feel safe, as if it can ward off trouble by declaring what
is wrong. The truth is that nothing is ever wrong with what is. The
mind just arbitrarily defines whatever is as wrong. It makes the moment
its enemy and then prepares a strategy for fighting it. This is how it creates
the drama we call life.

We can learn a lot from our
feelings about the role our beliefs play in our suffering. Our feelings call
attention to our mistaken beliefs and make it possible to become free of them if
we are willing to look in that direction. Usually, we don’t. We are not used to
thinking of our thinking as the problem but rather something else that needs to
be changed so that we can feel better. Instead of looking for the mistaken
belief behind the feeling and either changing or ignoring it, we try to change
reality to fit our beliefs—and that is a prescription for suffering.

About happiness:

If you just notice, you will see that
happiness is already here. Still, no matter how good life may be, the ego says
no to it: “It would be better if….” “I will be happy when….” As long as we don’t
follow these thoughts, we will be happy. But usually we give our attention to
the ego’s rejection of what is rather than to what is. We give
this “no” the power to steer our actions: We jump from one idea to the next,
trying to make life and ourselves better.

We will never attain happiness by listening
to the “no.” Happiness just is. It is inherent in the moment—in the now—in the
form of joy, acceptance, and love. It cannot not be. We only have to
notice what already is. That is the only reality there is, so why waste
your attention on what is not?

We think that some day there will be no more
“no”—no more ego arguing against reality—and then we will finally be happy. But
that day will never come. If you wait for the “no” to disappear, you will be
waiting a very long time.

We don’t have to get rid of the “no” to be
happy; we just have to see it for what it is—the programmed discontent of the
ego—and ignore it. The ego will never be happy, but we can be if we don’t give
our attention to what the mind says we need to be happy. The ego doesn’t know
about happiness. What can it know about happiness? Its job is to manufacture
unhappiness, and it is very skillful at convincing us otherwise.

About acceptance

Saying yes to what is doesn’t mean
we have to like what is. We only have to be willing to let it be the
way it is. This is a lot easier to do when we see the whole truth about
something and not just part of it, as the ego does. The whole truth is that
every experience has both positives and negatives and that whatever is,
is constantly changing. Whatever we don’t like in this moment will not
exist in another. No two moments are ever the same. Even how we feel about what
is changes. Feelings are another part of what is that we don’t
have to like; we just have to allow. Saying yes to what is just means
allowing it to be the way it is.

We could call this acceptance instead of
allowing, but “acceptance” seems to imply resignation. In this case, however,
“acceptance” really just means telling the truth about what is. And the
truth is that what is just is. That is all we have to accept. We accept
that it is. We can’t change the fact that we might prefer something to
be other than it is, and we don’t have to. Preferences are the way they are. A
preference for something to be other than it is, is just one of the things to be
accepted, allowed.

About the
Self

There is nothing closer to us than the Self.
It is not something we have to go searching for. We have always been alive as
the Self, but it is very quiet and overlooked much of the time because the mind
is so noisy. Because our senses keep us focused on things instead of
experience, we often miss the experience of this moment, which is where
the Self can be felt. Who we are is not a thing but a Be-ing—we are the
experience of awareness, aliveness, joy, love, wisdom, and happiness.
And that is what the experience of every moment holds.

Because the entire world is the
Self, a full experience of any aspect of it will bring us into the now and into
the experience of the Self. The Self delights in experiencing itself. That is
one reason it has created the physical world. Through it, it is experiencing
itself in various forms. We make it possible for the Self to explore and
experience the physical world. We are like sense organs that allow the Self to
experience itself through creation.

About awakening:

The hardest thing about waking up is staying
committed to the Truth. We have to want the Truth more than we want to be
someone. Until we fully commit ourselves to the Truth, the ego will remain in
charge. The ego has every reason to resist our awakening, but the suffering of
ego-identification ultimately wakes us up. The ego is both the problem and the
solution. Given this, we can’t help but wake up—eventually.

Many want to wake up, but they don’t want to
pay the price. It seems very dear: the me and its story. But how hard
is it, really, to give up something that doesn’t even exist? If you didn’t have
a Lexus, would it be hard to give it up? Of course not. But if you believed you
had a Lexus, then it would be. All we need to do is stop believing in something
that doesn’t exist. Nothing else changes, really, just the belief that
you exist, that you matter. The truth stays the same:
You never existed in the first place. It was all an
illusion.

This truth can be hard to swallow. It means
giving up not only our ideas about ourselves but our ideas period: all of our
opinions, beliefs, judgments, hopes, dreams, and our ideas about the past and
future. These are the only things that make us who we think we are. Nothing
else. These are all that have ever differentiated us from others, us from the
Self. This may seem like a high price, but what are they really? They are just
ideas.

The mind is the great generator of identity.
It thinks the egoic self into reality. We can just as easily make this egoic
self disappear by not thinking. When we stop thinking, our story about
me disappears. This is proof that the me is a fabrication of
the mind. When we stop thinking, or even just stop paying attention to our
thoughts, the me disappears. In its place is the truth of who we
are—the Self—which cannot be put into words.

About who you
are

When we are identified with the mind, we
believe that we are who we think we are: our self-image and the labels we have
for ourselves. But is that who you are? If that is who you are, then who is it
that is able to think about this question? What is it that is aware of the ideas
that make up the self-image? What is it that is aware of the coming and going of
thoughts?

This idea me may seem to reside in
the body or the mind or both, but what is it that is aware of the body and the
mind? Could that be who you are, and the body and the mind are just functioning
within that awareness? In that case, would you be limited to just the body and
mind, or could you actually be anything you are aware of right now? Could all of
it be you? What if that were true? What would that mean? Life would be lived
from a very different place.

These questions can wake us up out of the
egoic state of consciousness. Questioning the assumptions of the mind is a very
powerful tool for awakening. Becoming aware of the mind, its thoughts, and the
truth or falseness of them can help us bust through the web of illusion cast by
the mind and the ego, which fools us into thinking that we are separate when we
are not.

The peace, happiness, and joy we
have been searching for, competing for, have been here all along in the space
between our thoughts. We are this peace, happiness, and joy. We missed it
because it is who we are. It is too close for us to see, like an eye
that cannot see itself. It is so ever-present that, like water to a fish, it is
taken for granted and not questioned. Like the air we breathe, it is invisible
and without dimension, and the egoic mind doesn’t pay attention to such things.
It has eyes only for the tangibles in life.